Neufutur

NeuFutur Magazine started in 2000 as an extension of Amish Drive-By, the previous zine done by James McQuiston. Amish Drive-By was cancelled in early 2000 as an agreement reached by McQuiston and authorities at Lancaster High School. This agreement was reached because Amish Drive-By #4 had as its last page a game that used rumors floating around the high school, connected to individuals at the high school. Coupled with the shut-down of the magazine, McQuiston received a suspension from school.

In summer 2000, NeuFutur #1 came out, a zine that was completely laid out with Adobe Photoshop. The issue was short (20 pages), but really showed a marked improvement of the largely unoriginal content of Amish Drive-By. 100 copies of the issue were made, a number that would be the average print run until issue #10. Issue #1 featured the vitriolic writings of McQuiston that would disappear in later issues, and included pieces like "Why I Like Christian Music" and "The Leeching of Activism". "The Leeching of Activism" struck a blow against the true opiates of society, alcohol and the Internet, while "Why I Like Christian Music" showed that one can like music with a specific message without actually subscribing to that message.

Pieces of this issue were placed on http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stage/5375 , the precursor website to what would eventually come http://www.neufutur.com . While there had been straight uploading of the original .doc files of Amish Drive-By to the geocities site (then called UMA), the files from NeuFutur #1 were transferred into HTML format. This meant that more individuals could access the writings of McQuiston, as the HTML documents were typically 4-5 times smaller than the Word documents.

Contents

NeuFutur #2-4 Era

NeuFutur issues #2, #3, and #4 would really put McQuiston on the zine map; still at 100 issue print runs, what really catapulted the zine into the limelight was more of the same lack of concern for societal mores. The three-issue arcs of the John Murdoch interview and Sion's Story (done by McQuiston and contributor Underwood, respectively) would generate tremendous amounts of correspondence.

A Storm of Controversy

John Murdoch is a racialist author, with Nordic Front to eir credit, and McQuiston decided to interview eir to "know thy enemy". The interview went off swimmingly, but after the first piece went into print (NeuFutur #2), claims that McQuiston was running a racist publication began to filter in. This resulted in an explanatory article, making its way into a later issue, that essentially had as its key thrust that " I will add anything to this [magazine], provided that it helps promote or clarify what exactly a person or group is about. "

Sion's Story may have actually gotten more angry letters than the John Murdoch interview. Of particular note was the correspondence given the magazine by Webly Bucket, editor of Touched By An Anvil magazine (and sibling to Alex Wrekk of Brainscan and Microcosm Publishing). Essentially, what the argument came down to is that the story, which featured a character quite like Conan The Barbarian, was glorifying rape. McQuiston responded with the nuanced argument that a description of a rape is not a glorification of the act, but something that (however abhorrable it is) is still part of daily life.

NeuFutur #5

NeuFutur #5 was the first major shift in content that the magazine would have. #5 was a theme issue, in which a heavy focus was given to the films of Richard O'Brien (specifically Shock Treatment, the sequel to Rocky Horror Picture Show). In what is still the most requested issue of the magazine (this was the earliest issue to have a reprint), different song lyrics, histories, and information was imbued onto listeners about a sequel that most individuals did not know even existed. Furthermore, a discussion was began about the second sequel to Rocky Horror Picture Show, Revenge of the Old Queen, that was written for the 15th anniversary of the release of Rocky Horror Picture Show but not picked up as an option.

Current status

NeuFutur is currently on its 13th issue. It has re-united with previous splinter magazine InterStitial, which operated from 2003 to 2006 and printed four issues. NeuFutur had moved towards the very emotive writing of a magazine like Journalsong for a number of issues (8-12), but looks to move back to the same acerbic wit and disregard for society that originally lined its pages.